Here's another great piece by Anike Alli-Hakeem (this geh is jes too talented and intelligent) It's titled 'Hold my hand'....Enjoy. BTW, we are going to Las Vegas together.

You see, I’m a girl with too many hobbies. I love to do many things. I love to sleep, eat ice-cream and travel most of all. So, I woke up this morning and for 10 brief and hazy seconds, I was trying to ascertain what city I was in. The thing is, I live in Lagos and Abuja (don’t ask how I manage that alongside having a 9-5 job). I love both cities dearly. When I’m in one, I crave to be in the other, so I devised a plan which works for me.

When I’m in Lagos, I have to be physically at the office. On my way to work each day, I see a man selling plastic buckets in traffic just around Ojuelegba bridge. This man cannot be 25 years old. One can safely assume that he has a family he caters for. If selling plastics is all he does for a living, I really do not know how he can afford to eat two meals in a day. I had ice-cream for dinner yesterday. It was like a meal because I was full, yet, ice-cream is just dessert. Imagine that man. He must have his dreams, his hopes, his aspirations. Me, all I want is just to be able to travel and eat ice-cream and laugh and love and live. What can I possibly tell that man? *sigh*

So, this is what I will do…….. I WILL travel through the eyes of people like that man. When I see the smiles, I would appreciate it just as much as if I were walking around the arc de triomphe in France or planning a trip to Las Vegas with my friends or eating ice-cream for dinner.

I may not be able to make the whole nation smile, but I can start, a city at a time. I may not be able to make the whole city smile, but I can start, a person at a time. I may not be able to do it alone. I do not have to. I have 11 people holding hands with me and all individually saying; “all I want for Christmas, is to be a blessing”.

October 4th.............Why is it so important?

It's 4th October.................guess what it is today ? Please stop rolling your eyes, yeah, it's not a public holiday. It is the bestie's birthday today. God, I love that girl to bits. She can be mightily annoying and very rude(she still doesn't' get it...I'm older than her, 8 months is no joke).

How did we meet?

I think she wrote me a 'please be my friend' letter when we were kids, but she will not agree, anyway, that's what is in my head. Anyway, we became friends, cute friends I might add. We went to the same secondary school and university. I was the timid one, she was the outgoing  one. She actually bullied me in secondary school, can you imagine that? So one day I accidentally cut this girl's sandals and she said I must pay her, I really begged her o, she refused. She now went to bring some of her wack friends and they were threatening me, on our way home that day, I refused to talk to her and I started planning bad things for her and the day came, she came to my house, entered my room and I quietly went to lock the door, I pushed her on the bed, sat on her and started beating her, oh lawd, I can never forget that moment of victory.

This chic made me understand the power of influence, quiet, gentle me, suddenly became an extrovert to the surprise of everyone, and the reason was very conspicuous, 'Jennifer Adinga' happened.

We've had great moments, days of laughter, days of tears, days of craze *we can eat corn on the road, we just don't send* I can be myself around her, I don't have to pretend. She defends me and is always there for me. She's one in a million. I'd also like to add that it's best not to get involved when we are quarrelling, for your own good. We've grown together, from the time we started dancing to 'Barney' in front of the TV, to 'Busy body'- P square...lmao, and now we are bigz gehs fixing human hair.

I'm sorry honey that I'm not around as you turn 21, but it's not like you came for mine. Two can play that game....hehehe

xoxo

I'm so sorry for the long silence, here's why.....I present to you MY LONDON EXPERIENCE

This is going to be fun. OMG this pastry is just heavenly, I lav eet.

'Announcing the arrival of BA 82, Welcome to London'

Yikes, I'm in London

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Sightseeing

At Poundland

Me: Please, how much is this (holding the biggest bottle of coca cola zero)

Attendant: One pound

Me (in my mind): This is freaking cheap. The smallest bottle in 9ja is 250h

At Primark

Omo!!! see cheap things. I'll definitely be visiting

At Argos

Me: (to the attendant) Please I want to buy a duvet

Attendant: (In britico voice) Ma'am you're gonna have to write down your order from the computer

shuo, as a confirmed 9ja babe, no dulling. The way I take do the thing, u go think say I don dey do am tey tey......hehehe

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(Chineke, which kind food be this)....'errrm you know what, I'll just have chips, plain chips please, don't put anything'. As in the food here is just aaaarrgh and I've not found a Nigerian/African market. I found cereals though, on getting home I discovered that I forgot to buy cutleries, so I ate my Maltesers and slept.

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Now I'm in this induction class and I'm bored to death. I can only see 3 dark skinned people. One is VERY VERY dark, I think he is from Burkina Faso and he's trying to make conversation, if only he knows what's in my mind. I was convinced the other chic was Nigerian, until she came to say hi and told me she was from Uganda and the third guy? well, that one was on his own. Coffee time and I was sitting alone, trying to write this piece and this guy walked up to me, he had 'Pakistan' written boldly on his ID. Mehn, I fear o, he said to me ' why aren't you speaking to anyone' and I say 'It because I can't see anyone like me, you guys are everywhere'. He picked up my black pen, coloured a portion of his hand and said 'see, don't be a racist'.....lol, funny dude. I took note of his name 'Norman Taj', I'll probably still run into him again.

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Do you know that the tap in London is either burning hot or freezing cold and its freaking difficult to find a bucket?....mshew

Do you know that you don't need to look left and right to cross the road, just push a button and all cars stop for you? pretty cool huh

Na for London, papa and child go dey share cigarette for road. I never see

Gotta go now, talk to you guys later....toodles

BTW, I finally found garri and groundnut, that's the picture you see

A poem by my dear friend Lawrence Obazei, and it's titled 'FAITH'. I love his poems. Enjoy

I believe I am talented
I dont Know what exactly
it is but I'm willing and
ready to learn, it's not a secret
to the world anymore
I don't want to mislead anyone
Where-as in the process not to
be labelled as a laughing stalk
I am cocky not because am the best
my words speak for itself
I don't believe you have to be inspired
to be/by your icons for inspirations
Rather I choose to be my own hero
Because in the end
You are the main movie star
in the your life story
Your tale of endurance
will be your fortitude to success
Live life to the fullest like no tomorrow
You only live once "Aubrey Graham"
Why complicate it?
One can only be free to unravel
the mysteries of life
when they are ready accept
your limited time on earth
you then begin to live life
to the fullest as if it was the only
one we had
It is the beauty in the breakdown
of our existence of being on earth
from life then to ashes we shall become
a circle of life
Though I humble myself in vanity
I clearly know my beginnings and
the purpose of my existence

Beyond thrilled.....Thank you

As at 4:58pm today, this blog had 1,055 views. I'm sure it has increased as this is been typed. I was shocked. I've been planning to hit 1,000 by September, but I mean this is beyond encouraging. This blog began on the 7th of August 2012, and today, it is exactly 20 days old. You guys mean so much to me. Thanks to all my friends, who believed in me, visited the blog and re-broadcasted on BBM, twitter and facebook. Thanks to other bloggers who featured me on their blogs. muah....love you to bits and I promise never to disappoint. EXPECT MORE

Sequel to 'Would you call me an aristocrat?'

Remember my story on how I was accosted by one guy like that on my way home from church sometime ago? well, I'm here with further gist You've not heard my ranting on this issue probably because my mum has been borrowing me her car because she did not want a repeat of the incident, however, quite unfortunately, the car broke down, so I walked to church. It's not so far plus its a good way to enjoy nature. On my way back at about 7:40 pm, I had my hands free on, I was enjoying my music and the fresh air, and this guy (I don't know if its the same guy from the other day) comes out of nowhere and taps me on my shoulder, startled, I stopped abruptly and looked blankly, then he says 'I've been trying to get your attention since, and you just put your ear (he actually said 'air') piece as if somebody is not talking to you'. My first reaction was to tell him something that will make him go back home and think but I remembered that you guys adviced me to walk away next time, I also thought about the fact that there was total black out, most houses had not put on their generators, then I saw some guys on my street standing outside their houses, so I gathered courage and I quietly put back my hands free without uttering a word (yay me) and continued walking. Those my neighbours kept looking as the guy followed me on, I'm sure they must have been saying 'kai, this girl is not easy at all'....lol. The guy kept speaking but of course, I heard nothing, I had increased my volume, he finally turned back. I gisted my parents and my dad said I should have texted him immediately the guy tapped me....lol. My father will not kill me, please I'm a lady now and can handle the guy and even more....lmao abeg don't mind my mouth o, still pray for me, I don't want to get beaten up.

THE LAST IDIOT. Please drop your comments, love u guys.

Me:(On the phone) No, I prefer the Coco Chanel. Errm, the green one please. Thanks. Ok, talk to you later.

Abi: Who was that on the line?

Me: See question o. Who else, Toks of course

Abi: Hian nawa o, this your friend that I've not met

Me: There's no need dragging the friend, I've told you that there's nothing between us. He should be back in 2 weeks though, you'll meet him. He's doing some shopping, he wanted to know my preferences.

Abi: You look very happy, I have to admit

Me: Of course I'm happy, he seems genuine and he's very nice

Abi: So what's holding you back

Me: You can't have forgotten the last idiot.

                                                              THE LAST IDIOT

Me: Look Abraham, I've told you not to call me again. For crying out loud, we have nothing in common. I'm a born again Christian.

Abraham: Please I'll change. I will even go to church for you

Me: I'm sorry, I can't date you. I want someone who genuinely loves God

Abraham: But I just said...

(I end the call)

 

Next Sunday as I walk to the choir stand, I see Abraham at the right front seat of the last row and I was more angry than surprised. I thought to myself, 'This is just great, now he's stalking to me'. I made up my mind I was going to ignore him. After service, he walked up to me and tried to make conversation and I responded shabbily and walked away. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a snob, I've had my share of heartbreaks. I was born into a Christian family but we were not the overly righteous people, however we were morally upright. I've dated cool guys but because of my strong belief against pre-marital sex, those relationships did not last. On my 24th birthday, I made up my mind that I was done with worldly guys because they just want to go all the way and I wasn't ready to compromise, and this was what I've been trying to make Abraham understand. He's handsome, cool, not to mention rich but he doesn't have the God factor.

After that Sunday, I got about four messages from Abraham during the week and I did not reply any of them. I didn't hear from him after that but something strange caught my interest, 2 months on and Abraham had not missed any Sunday service, his right front seat of the last row had become his permanent. I was happy, perhaps he had genuinely given his life to Christ. I made up my mind that the next time he texted, I would definitely reply. Still, I got no text, then I got a shocker, Pastor was commissioning the next set of church workers, and Abraham was commissioned an Usher in Church. This was the 7th month, he had been consistent. Now I was worried, he wasn't showing any interest, he would just greet me casually after service and drive off, that's if I even run into him. I began to put it into prayers, I prayed that God should rekindle his love for me. He had started getting cosy with Jennifer,  fellow chorister. I started to look out for both of them, I would always see her alight from his car. The bitch*(excuse my language), first she was dragging solo with me during rehearsals, now she also wanted my man? (yes, he's my man). I did the Christian thing, I didn't confront her but I'm pretty sure she could feel the hostile air from me. If ogling could kill, she'd be dead.

At 7:08 pm, Thursday, November 2009, I got a call from Abraham, I got nervous, I picked nonetheless. He wanted to know if I was free for dinner on Friday, he said he wanted to discuss something. Even though I had a prayer meeting, I said I was free. We hung out, we had fun, then we got to the serious part, he said he had been praying about us and that he's convinced that I'm his wife and that he had also discussed it with pastor. I was doing cartwheels in my mind but I decided to form a little, then I asked about Jennifer. He dismissed it with a wave of the hand, saying that they were just friends even though she wanted something more. (In my mind- I knew it, nonsense girl). I knew my answer was yes, but I didn't want to show my excitement so I promised I would pray about.

On the 5th of February, 2010, we got married. I had envisioned my wedding night and gotten the perfect lingerie. It was a beautiful night or so I thought. 2 days later, he had his friends over, they were all laughing profusely, I went close to the door to eavesdrop, I wanted to know what was so funny and that was when I overheard Abraham say 'I won, I finally slept with her and she's not even all that' and they continued to laugh. I was confused, I didn't know who he was referring to, so I went in and the whole room went quiet, so I asked but afraid to know the answer 'Who did you win Abraham' and with every ounce of pride in him, he replied 'You'. Me? I don't understand. He answered, you were a bet honey and I won and I've proved to these guys that I'm the man and he continued laughing. His friends seemed unsure about laughing. As the tears streamed down my face, he said to me 'Don't worry, I'll still remain married to you, I worked damn too hard'.

That's how I left my husband's house barely 72 hours after marriage. God hates divorce, Abraham has not asked me for a divorce, now it's been 2 years and my heart yearns for another. I'm existing and not living. Toks knows about everything and he is willing to look past all of it. Will dating Toks be considered as infidelity in the sight of God? I've not heard that Abraham has been with another woman and so I can't leave him on grounds of unfaithfulness. What do I do? I want to be with Toks.